Archive for the 'The Sword' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Sugarland’s star vocalist is about to bust out on her own in a big way.

Next week brings Jennifer Nettles’ solo debut, That Girl, teased since August by its sultry title track, produced by Rick Rubin (who laid a similarly warm treatment on Dixie Chicks’ transformative last album, Taking the Long Way) and featuring songwriting contributions from Sara Bareilles, Richard Marx and Butch Walker, plus a cover of Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock.”

And after appearing alongside James Taylor, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Steven Tyler, Martina McBride and many more at the MusiCares Person of the Year salute to Carole King on Jan. 24, Nettles embarks on her first tour without creative partner Kristian Bush since the duo became popular.

Eventually that trek winds its way to a Stagecoach appearance on April 26. But the singer, who turns 40 in September, has added a smaller local stop for fans who can’t get to the country festival in Indio, March 29 at the Wiltern. Tickets, $29.50-$69.50, go on sale Friday, Jan. 10, at 10 a.m.

The Newport Folk Festival, the renowned Rhode Island gathering that decades ago provided a launching pad for future heroes like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, has made a West Coast foray before, when organizers enlisted Wilco, John Hiatt and more for a national tour that played the Greek in 1998.

But they’ve never attempted something like what’s in store for Oct. 5-6 at the Santa Monica Pier. Dubbed Way Over Yonder, it looks to be a miniature Newport Folk featuring some of today’s most touted names, including Conor Oberst (above), Neko Case and Justin Townes Earle.

The latter two appear on the first day, along with Brett Dennen, superb Arizona mood-shapers Calexico and Shovels & Rope. Oberst, who does business as Bright Eyes and also will appear around this same time with another of his projects, Desaparecidos, will headline the second half of the fest, also featuring turns from country-lovin’ Swedish duo First Aid Kit, the Felice Brothers, Jonathan Wilson and Thao & the Get Down Stay Down.

Assorted solo acoustic acts also will perform throughout both daylong gatherings. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 14, at 10 a.m. Single-day prices are $36 for general admission, $75 for VIP. Weekend passes are $64 for GA, $170 for VIP.

One Direction during the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony last month. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images

In case you hadn't noticed, One Direction mania in America -- or Southern California, at least -- seems limitless at the moment. The latest Brits to set pulses racing among teenage girls in the States -- Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis -- have already played to ecstatic throngs in L.A. and Anaheim, and already have two rapidly sold-out shows planned for next summer.

Wait. Make that three.

Late last week the lads announced a third date that will surely sell out in an instant: Aug. 9.

Tickets, $29.50-$89.50, become available Saturday, Sept. 8, at 10 a.m. Pre-sales are already underway for fan club members and American Express card-holders.

Editor's note: Unless you're obsessively following a favorite band (or five) via your social media of choice (Arcade Fire's set streamed earlier this evening on Vevo, as other performances will), the thing you've probably heard most about Bonnaroo 2011 is that a 32-year-old Pittsburgh woman was found dead outside her tent Thursday night. That's a shame, but thankfully a rarity at festivals like these -- and not the sort of news that should overshadow what's really going on in Manchester: loads of great music.

Finding time to write, however, is another matter: Who has time when there are more sets to see? David's catching up as he can but was only able to fire off so many thoughts about Day 2 while darting between stages throughout Day 3 -- and there are still more late-night jams to come. Stay tuned. Plenty more to come.

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The Sword (That Tent, 3:30 p.m.): Some might say metal doesn't fit the Bonnaroo vibe, but this Austin-based quartet undermined any such assumptions during its afternoon set. Appropriately invoking the festival's predominately Southern spirit, the group hit its peak with a shred-filled cover of ZZ Top's "Cheap Sunglasses."

How do you transform a hellishly humid sector of farmland into a world-renowned, 80,000-person-strong musical paradise? You turn it over to the makers of Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, who, with their 10th edition of the annual four-day event, seem to have finally worked out any and all kinks -- not to mention scored the year's most eclectic powerhouse lineup.

The bill is topped by a handful of Grammy winners -- among them Arcade Fire on Friday, the Black Keys and Eminem on Saturday -- plus a number of historically important acts: the reunited Buffalo Springfield is sandwiched between the latter two, while Dr. John and the original Meters will perform the fest's namesake album, Desitively Bonnaroo, later that night; Robert Plant is slated for Sunday.

Add Mumford & Sons, the Strokes, My Morning Jacket and Primus to that list and this roster already trumps those earlier this year at Coachella and Sasquatch (Kanye West's galvanic onslaught at the former aside). But it isn't just the lineup that sets this Bonnaroo apart from past years and other fests. Nearly everything is streamlined: as in Indio, new high-security wristbands are shutting out sneak-ins, car-camping traffic was virtually nonexistent, and amenities are at an all-time high. (There's a giant water slide on site. 'Nuff said.)

None of the major headliners I've listed have played yet; the first day out here in Manchester, Tenn., is abbreviated, with the main stage vacant in anticipation of a three-day trample. Nevertheless, Day 1 was packed with talent under the eaves of the fest's tents, with That Tent (oh-so-facetiously named alongside This Tent, the Other Tent, Which Stage and What Stage) serving as the night's most hoppin' hotbed.

I walked up just in time for School of Seven Bells, a mellow yet powerful intro to the evening's run of artists. The band's frontwoman, Alejandra Deheza, sings with remarkable semblance to Portishead's Beth Gibbons, her deep, quavering voice splicing tantalizingly with nearly off-kilter beats and the airy licks of guitarist Benjamin Curtis, his work echoing the multi-layering of the Edge.

Dozens of new shows are going on sale this weekend but a majority of the biggest ones were already announced weeks ago. So let's start with a few that are brand spankin' new.

Thought Kings of Leon's Coachella set would be the quartet's last appearance for a while? Think again. They still have their fifth album (Come Around Sundown) to promote, which they will do via a summer tour that launches in the South in July and reaches Southern California right around Labor Day. With Band of Horses as supporting act, the Kings will play Sept. 4 at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista and Sept. 8 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. Check back for on-sale info.

Meanwhile, Maroon 5 and Train have teamed for a co-headlining outing that kicks off July 22 at Cricket and stops July 25 at the Hollywood Bowl. Gavin DeGraw will open. Tickets for the Chula Vista show, $32-$92.50, are on sale Saturday at 10 a.m., while the Bowl gig, $25.50-$105.50, goes on sale Monday at 10 a.m.

And though we've been lax in reporting this -- put it down to post-Coachella fatigue -- by now you've likely heard that Rage Against the Machine will once more resurface to play somewhere in the greater Los Angeles area on July 30, in a bill also including Muse and Rise Against. More details when we know 'em.

Editor's note: Fest-frequenting writer-photographer David Hall, having already journeyed from Coachella to Bonnaroo to Outside Lands this year, has flown out for the weekend once more, this time to Texas ...

Before I begin gushing about how utterly special Austin City Limits Music Festival can be, I need to come clean: everything I write about Austin is completely biased. As an Austin native, my love for this city is inextricably infused into my impressions of so many performances I've witnessed already this weekend.

Still,there's something about both Austin and this festival that goes beyond the influence of my roots. Some quality that more than 100,000 others find so magnetic that they keep coming here year after year, pilgrims flocking to one more music Mecca.

It's not that the roster at ACL completely trumps those of Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza or Outside Lands. Most all of them boasted performances that were repeated as part of ACL's stellar Friday lineup: the ever-electrifying Strokes, new and old indie rock titans like Spoon, Sonic Youth and Vampire Weekend, not to mention heavy-hitting fest vets the Black Keys and the night's jamming closer, Phish.

Now here's one of the few truly intriguing things to head our way in a while ...

In February, for the first time since the '70s, Yoko Ono, now 77, performed her still-one-of-a-kind Plastic Ono Band material at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with backing from the original players: Eric Clapton, bassist/artist Klaus Voorman and renowned drummer Jim Keltner.

Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth joined in. So did Bette Midler. And Paul Simon, and his son Harper, whose solo debut arrived last year, just in case you missed it, and who (again, for those catching up) has recorded as the Heavy Circles with Paul's wife, New Bohemians singer-songwriter Edie Brickell.

Sean Lennon, Yoko & John's progeny, organized it all, naturally. After all, apart from creating his own discography (so consistently bittersweet/enjoyable I wish it would double in size), he's also a principal member of the new Plastic Ono Band. That group helped make Yoko's acclaimed 2009 album Between My Head and the Sky -- and, in addition to noted Japanese artist Cornelius, its lineup also features longtime Ono Lennon associate Yuko Honda, one-half of the quirky pop outfit Cibo Matto.

Must-see stuff, if you ask me. Bette Midler and Sonic Youth in the same evening? That's so Yoko Ono. Consider my Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers plans changed -- I'll miss their Bowl show on Oct. 1 to see Yoko & Co. and catch 'em the next night in Irvine instead.